IT is a historic reminder of the heyday of the post office system. And now a grade II-listed sorting office in Kentish Town is set to have a new lease of life as it is converted into homes and offices.

The sorting office, in Leighton Road, was built in 1903 and was closed by the Post Office in 1995 when operations were moved to a new warehouse in nearby Regis Road. Since then it has been used by an architects’ practice and a clothing manufacturer.

Proposals submitted by planning consultants DP9 state that the project will convert the interior hall, where letters were once sorted, into a new office complex. Land behind the original Edwardian building, currently taken up by modern extensions, will become nine homes. The plans also show a restoration scheme for the listed red-brick façade that faces the street. The building is owned by the trustees of TW David and Sons Ltd 1991.

In a report for Town Hall planners, historic building experts KM Heritage said: “In terms of architectural or aesthetic value, this is largely limited to the front elevation of the building, although internally its plan form remains largely intact as well as the overall sense of the original double-height volume of the sorting hall.

“There are a few simple details that remain, such as cornices to the offices, some parquet flooring and the supervisor’s office oriel window. The modern interventions and rear extensions are not regarded as having heritage significance.”

They added that the plans, due to considered by Town Hall officers in the coming weeks, “have been carefully considered to give it a long-term, sustainable future which not only retains the listed building’s commercial use but enables it to be upgraded, giving it a new lease of life”.

Historian Gillian Tindall, who lives opposite the site, noted that the application did not contain site drawings and, while she welcomed the work on the front exterior, Ms Tindall said planners should approach the housing section with caution. 

She added: “Judging by the scant info so far available, I don’t think this will do. 

“I would be all for using the back spaces of the old sorting office for some sort of compact residential development, making use of the existing structure and, if necessary, extending it, but a three-storey block rearing up between the back of the office and the railway line would surely be inappropriate.”